Chapter 8
Aurora
I made my way into Sip and Stir on my way home and grabbed a cinnamon scone and muffin. I sat down at an empty table and pulled out my notes from my last class.
I split the scone in half and took a bite and was about to open my notes and go over them when I caught sight of my brother.
He pulled the door open, walked in, and went straight to the counter.
After he’d placed his order, he glanced over his shoulder, surprise lining his face as he smiled.
He thanked the girl and made his way over to me.
“This is a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?” he said, sliding into the booth across from me.”
“Shouldn’t I ask you that? It’s not normal for you to be out here on the island.”
“No, it’s not. I have a work meeting not too far from here in about thirty minutes. So, I thought I’d come over a little early, stop at a couple of places, and then grab a coffee before I went.”
“A work meeting? Something going on?” I questioned.
He chuckled. “You know I can’t tell you anything about it.”
“I know.” I sighed, letting out a yawn.
“Everything alright? You look a little more tired than usual.”
I shrugged. “Everything is fine. I guess it’s just been a long week.”
I thought back to dinner the other night, when I’d first re-encountered Dylan.
I didn’t even need to try hard, and I could still feel the same tension in my body when I’d met Dylan that night at Mom and Joe’s.
I was sure everyone in the room had noticed it, even though I’d silently prayed for days that they hadn’t.
“Anything bothering you?” Walker questioned, looking at me with concern.
I shook my head and took another bite of the cinnamon delight, hoping I wasn’t giving anything away. Most of my life, Walker had read me like a book, so I didn’t know why I wasn’t just telling him the truth. “No, everything is great. Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know. You seemed funny the other night at Joe’s. Especially when Dylan arrived.”
I could feel a surge of heat run through my body. He had noticed, and now I wanted to die.
“What do you mean?” I questioned, trying hard to act like everything was completely normal.
“You seemed, I don’t know, weird. Almost like you knew him.”
I leaned back in the booth and sighed. There was no use keeping it from him. That statement right there told me he had already figured it out. Besides, we never kept secrets from one another.
“Okay, fine. Don’t freak out.”
“Why would I freak out? So you knew the guy, probably from Lorelai, no doubt. I mean, you two normally hang out at her brother’s house, so it wouldn’t surprise me you’d met him there.”
“No, I didn’t meet him through Phil. I met Dylan when we were in Mexico. We didn’t exchange names or anything. We just spent the night together on what I’d call an idiotic and irresponsible night on my behalf.”
“You’re shitting me?” Walked asked, looking up at me, his coffee halfway to his mouth.
I shook my head. “No, I went on a mission to be more like Mom. I wanted one night to get over Greg. It was dumb and stupid and something that never ever should have happened. Anyway, you can imagine my surprise when I saw him again.”
“You mean to tell me you didn’t recognize him?”
“Why would I? I don’t watch hockey.”
“No, but Lorelai does. Did she not recognize him?”
I shrugged. “She said he looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. Then she got a bad sunburn and basically was of no use to anyone for the rest of the trip. Anyway, you can imagine my shock when I saw him.”
Walker chuckled. “You might be right. Perhaps you really have the worst luck of anyone you or I know. Look, I got to be going or I’ll be late. Try not to stress over it. It’s in the past.”
Walker got up and dumped his cup in the garbage, waved, then laughed again and made his way out the door of the coffee shop, leaving me sitting there alone. He did not know how badly I wished he were right and that the events of that night were truly in the past.
I lay on my bed, staring at my textbook. I’d come home, ate half my dinner, then came into my room. I needed to study, but I couldn’t stop thinking of Dylan. In fact, I’d barely stopped thinking of him since he followed me into the bedroom on Saturday night.
“You’d better snap out of this mood you are in and get ready to have a good time tonight,” Lorelai said, coming into my room and dropping her books on my desk. She sat down on my favourite reading chair and spun around to look at me. “Sophie and Mila will be here in a couple of hours.”
I dropped my pencil and rested my head on my arm. “What if I don’t want to go out tonight?”
“It’s Friday, why wouldn’t you want to go out tonight?” Lorelai asked, giving me a funny look.
I let out a sigh and tried to come up with any reason that made sense, but I couldn’t think of anything. The only thing I could come up with was because I wanted to stay home and drool over someone I was trying not to want.
“See, you really want to go out tonight,” she said, getting up and making her way over to my closet. She opened the door and began skimming through my clothes, trying to find something to wear.
“No, I really don’t.” I pouted.
Lorelai stopped what she was doing and made her way over to where I lay on my bed. She plopped down beside me and studied me. “What is it?”
I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, not sure what to tell my best friend. I’d kept the events of the Saturday-night bedroom encounter all to myself.
“If something is bothering you, you know you can tell me.” she said, waiting for me to break down and share with her. “You have been weird since the party, so I’m going to guess something happened between the time I went to the washroom and then helped your mom in the kitchen. Didn’t it?”
Lorelai was like a mind reader. It was something I found so fascinating about her. She could always tell when someone was having trouble. She always said she was more in tune with other people than with herself, and that was why she always got hurt so badly.
I nodded. “You’re right.”
“Well, why don’t you tell me what happened? Maybe I can help you sort through the issue.”
I literally wanted to die. I was so ridiculously attracted to Dylan that I did not know how to navigate the things I was feeling.
He was my new stepbrother. There shouldn’t be any type of attraction to him now that our families had joined.
He should have been just as annoying to me as Walker could be.
Instead, every time he looked my way or was near me, my heart instantly sped up and I got a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.
His actions on Saturday night had blown my mind, and I hated my body for responding the way it had.
“You like him, don’t you?” she questioned.
I ran my hand over my face and nodded. “Yes.”
“Then why are fighting it so hard? I mean, it’s not like you are cousins or something.”
I shrugged. “What will people think?”
“People don’t have to know,” Lorelai whispered.
“I know, but I know.”
Lorelai let out a sigh. “Okay, but you told your mother what happened in Mexico. She wasn’t upset.”
“No, on the contrary, she found it rather hilarious,” I said, looking at my best friend. “I’m not sure why I had expected anything less.”
“Then what is the issue?”
“We slept together the other night,” I blurted out.
“When?” She frowned. “You’ve been here all week.”
The second I looked at her, her mouth dropped open in shock. “At the party????”
I nodded.
"With all those people?”
Again, I nodded. “Then he gave me his number and is expecting me to message him. In fact, it was almost like he challenged me.”
“Why didn’t you message him?”
“Have you ever known me to do anything when I’m challenged to do it?”
Lorelai smirked. “Oh boy. He really likes you too, then.”
“Yeah. I mean, I think he does.”
“I say just get with him, or tonight, maybe pick up a guy. Whatever you do, you need to get him out of your system. There is only one of two ways to do that. Either you succumb to your desire and go for him, or you go for someone else.”
For the first time I could remember, Lorelai was actually zero help to me.
I’d no idea what the answer was, but since Saturday, I couldn’t remember how many times I’d picked up my cell phone to message him, stopping myself each time.
It had gotten so bad that I’d turned my phone off and left it in my purse or my car, anywhere that it was out of reach. I was pathetic.
“Come on. Snap out of it and come out with us. You’ll feel much better.”
“Where are you going?” I muttered, desperately trying to decide what I was going to do. Go out and have fun or stay home and sulk.
“Illusions. Sophie wants to check the place, out and Mila, well, she just wants to get out and party. So get yourself up! Get dressed! Put some makeup on and feel human. They will be here shortly.”
It was a little after ten by the time we’d finished getting ready to go out.
We waited in line outside of Illusions for half an hour before finally making it to the door.
The doorman checked our IDs and then let us inside.
The place was packed, and the music was so loud I could barely hear myself think.
I just followed Lorelai and the girls through the crowd and over to the bar.
While we waited for our drinks, I turned and looked around at the multi-layered club.
It was the first time we’d been here. I scanned the room and then glanced up at the upper floors.
It was dark and hard to see, but someone caught my eye.
This guy stood there staring down at me.
Out of the entire club, I was almost certain he was staring at me.
I moved, his head moved in my direction, then I looked a little closer.
I was sure it was Dylan. He was there with a few other guys, standing and looking over the ledge.
I tore my eyes from him, looked around, and then glanced up again, only to see he was gone.